The Judgements of a Good Man
by Lauraldi
Summary: Vaughn is Judgemental. Chelsea is..well, nobody really knows what or who Chelsea is, but everybody trusts her. As if being best friends with his estranged brother, Skye, wasn't enough-the closest thing Vaughn's got to a mother takes her under her wing and demands Vaughn watch out for her. Vaughn is not a jealous person, is a rancher with a shady past enough to change that?
1. Home

While it may be true that Vaughn was not the best at communicating his feelings, he had a lot of feelings. People who didn't know him thought of him as intimidating and emotionless, his two days a week boss, Mirabelle, thought of him as misunderstood. But of course, all that really matters is what he thought of himself.

To himself: he was an animal lover, a hopeless romantic, and even a world famous rock star when it was 5am and he was taking his morning shower.

Vaughn never really cared much about what other people thought of him. Sure, he cared about what his mother must have thought of him when he was suspended from school for fighting. He cared about what his brother must have thought of him when he told him he hated him for moving to the countryside. But in the grand scheme of things, did it honestly matter? How was he supposed to live a happy, fulfilled life if his every decision was made so other people would judge him as what they perceived to be a 'good' man? Vaughn knew that he had qualities that were both good and bad, but despite all his bad qualities, he judged that he was a good man.

Fair enough, he was Judgemental, impatient and oblivious to other people's emotions. He was also passionate, determined and sometimes, selfless: only sometimes though.

For being somebody who hated judgement- he sure was judgemental. _Hypocritical_ he thought, he could add that one to the list.

Vaughn wasn't too upset about the fact his good qualities were often outshone by his bad ones. In fact, he was pleased. He just didn't particularly like people, if people tried to socialize with him, his instant reaction was rudeness; and he wasn't a boy anymore so rudeness was not excusable.

He tapped his heel against the wooden deck of the boat waiting for the journey to the island his job required him to visit two days a week to finish. As the clean country breeze filled his lungs, he smiled in content, happy to be free of the factories and smog that plagued the world he was used to. Coming to the island every week was bittersweet. Bitter because the island was so darn small, he couldn't possibly get a second alone and sweet because no matter how alone he was, he longed for the fresh air and the feeling of joy only animals could bring him.

On the horizon, he saw his destination. He picked up his bag and mentally prepared himself for the hug that Mirabelle was sure to smother him with when he arrived. Mirabelle was the only person who was consistently nice to Vaughn; he had sworn to himself that he would never let her past his cold glare but she had persisted and eventually he had relented and told her all about his many struggles and troubles over several cups of tea on a late night.

She had listened, that was the thing that had really surprised Vaughn. Unlike his own mother, Mirabelle had listened to him and she had given him advice and she had laughed at his painfully un-funny jokes to make him feel good. She, in return to his admissions, had told him all about her struggles and troubles too.

When he saw her smiling face beaming at him from the beach, he just couldn't help but smile back at her.

As soon as his tired feet finally hit the sand, Mirabelle swept him up in a hug.

'Oh, I swear you've gotten taller since I last saw you. Have you gotten taller since then?' Mirabelle asked in a rush

'It was only last week; you act as if I've been gone for months' Vaughn replied, teasingly

Vaughn heard a quiet giggle come from behind Mirabelle and froze. The only person it could have been was Mirabelle's daughter, Julia; but Julia should have been working in Mirabelle's pet store today.

He looked behind Mirabelle, and found a girl he'd never seen before looking at him. He froze embarrassed at the fact this stranger had just witnessed his open affection for his boss.

_No, let her think what she wants. She can only judge me if I let her_ He thought to himself, straightening himself up

He fixed his usual glare on his face and started straight back at the girl. Red coloured her previously pale face and she stared intently at the ground, intimidated.

Her appearance seemed straight out of a teen fiction novel. Almost pure-white skin, almost blonde hair and eyes you could almost get lost in; if they were the only eyes around. Everything about her was just 'almost'. If her life really was a teen fiction novel, this would be the part of the story where they gazed into each other's eyes and sailed off into the sunset.

Sadly, this was not her teen fiction. This was Vaughn's life.

Vaughn wasn't interested in 'almost' Vaughn was interested in 'perfect', but then again, he thought bitterly to himself, who was he to judge?

'Vaughn' Mirabelle hissed quietly

His full attention turned back to Mirabelle and he realized he was being rude again. He begrudgingly dropped the glare.

'This is Chelsea' Mirabelle said, raising her voice slightly so the girl- Chelsea could hear 'She's the island's new rancher'

Chelsea, nodded to Vaughn nervously

'Hello' she said

'Vaughn' He said to her, sticking his hand out so she could shake it

'Chelsea' she replied, nervously accepting Vaughn's handshake

Vaughn had to resist reminding her that he already knew her name as Mirabelle had just introduced her; so he just nodded in response.

'Talkative bunch you two are' Mirabelle chuckled

Chelsea chuckled out of politeness, it was clear to Vaughn that she was uncomfortable meeting new people, or it may have just been the fact that he had glared her after no more than 5 seconds of learning of her existence when she hadn't really done anything to offend him.

Vaughn begrudgingly gave her a tight lipped smile that indicated he didn't really care for her company so far. To be fair though, he rarely cared for anybody's company.

Mirabelle turned to Vaughn

'Let's get home' she said warmly

Vaughn almost smiled at the way Mirabelle refused to refer to her home as 'My house' when speaking to Vaughn. It was only ever 'home' like it was his home as well. Mirabelle and Julia were the first people to ever make Vaughn feel like he had belonged somewhere. Never once had he felt remotely 'at home' growing up under his mother's roof. His city apartment didn't even feel like a home to him; just somewhere he ate and slept sometimes.

Mirabelle now turned to Chelsea

'You're welcome to join us too, Chelsea' Mirabelle said warmly to the rancher

Chelsea's eyes widened. She looked at Vaughn, then back to Mirabelle as if to say 'are you sure he'll be okay with that?'

Vaughn, having had enough of feeling like the newest antagonist in Chelsea's teen fiction life, picked up his bag and began walking back to Mirabelle's pet store.

Home.


	2. Pie for Four

'TACKLE HUG!' Julia screeched, as soon as Vaughn walked through the door.

Vaughn swiftly moved out of the way, leaving Julia to run into the wall.

Julia peeled herself off of the wall and glared at him, and then her usual playful smile was back.

'I've missed you' Julia began 'Don't tell anyone though, I wouldn't want anyone to think I don't dislike you'

'I wouldn't have it any other way' Vaughn said, smirking

'Wow, you're awfully chatty today. Is that the longest sentence you've said all day?' Julia teased

'That's the only sentence I've said all day'

'Ha! Not it's not, you just said a sentence' shouted Julia, sticking her tongue out in childish triumph

The door opened, in walked Mirabelle and Chelsea. Chelsea's eyes went to Vaughn, then Julia, then down to the floor.

Mirabelle put a comforting arm around Chelsea's shoulder and smiled at her reassuringly. She whispered something in Chelsea's ear which made the shy rancher giggle. Vaughn hated the fact that he was curiously wondering what Mirabelle had said to ease the girl's nervousness.

'What are we having for dinner?' Julia asked her mother

'There's still some of last night's pie left over' Mirabelle pointed out

'Great!' Julia clapped her hands 'Everybody sit down at the table, there's a reheated vegetable pie with our names on it!'

An hour later, Chelsea was chatting to Julia like she had known her for her whole life. Vaughn knew this because their chatter was all he could hear from his bedroom. The sound of the girls' chattering brought a welcome distraction from Vaughn's thoughts; his mind was relaying memories of the past, over and over and over. No matter how much he told his brain to shut up or focus on something else- his thoughts always went back to his memories of his brother and their old country house.

'I guess I'll be heading home then' he heard Chelsea say from the next room

Although the chatter helped block out his thoughts, he was pleased that Chelsea was leaving; there was something he just didn't like about that girl. As soon as he was sure she was gone, Vaughn left his bedroom and walked out into the front room to find Mirabelle reading some book about embroidery.

'Oh, Vaughn honey' She said, in a tone like she wanted to ask him for a favour 'Can I ask a favour of you?'

Darn it.

Still it was Mirabelle, he couldn't turn her down.

'What is it?' He questioned

'Chelsea's central heating isn't working properly, you know how old that rickety old farm house is' She said

Okay, maybe he could turn Mirabelle down.

'I just hate the idea of Chelsea feeling cold' Mirabelle frowned

Vaughn silently cursed Mirabelle's maternal nature.

Mirabelle turned to him 'Come on Vaughn' she began 'she's just moved here all on her own, it's pretty daunting for her. I just want her to know we're here for her if she needs us'

Vaughn realised with a guilty frown that Mirabelle was right.

'Just like me and Jules were here for you when you first needed us…' she added, hopefully

'Fine' he sighed, realising she was right 'I'll go over there and take a look at it first thing tomorrow morning'

'But it gets cold here at night'

Vaughn raised one eyebrow at her; Mirabelle gave him exactly the same look back. Vaughn realised that he had already lost this fight and grabbed his coat from the coat rack. When he looked back at Mirabelle, she had a very smug look on her face.

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><p><strong>Sorry this is such a short one, I was going to combine it with the next part but it didn't really work at all. I've written the next couple of chapters and looking over them, they're all much shorter than the first one. So sorry if you're not a fan of that. <strong>

**Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. Please leave a review :) x**


	3. The Almost-Home

Vaughn wrapped his black coat further around him as the cold air bit at him. Okay, maybe Chelsea did deserve heating after all, if he didn't get frostbite on the journey up to her farmhouse that is. And if he did die some kind of cold-related death tonight, he had better be going to heaven.

Mirabelle was right, Vaughn noted, about how run-down the place was. He was surprised the shack hadn't fallen down yet. Not that he was feeling worried of course; he had only just met the girl.

When he finally reached Chelsea's house, he knocked sternly on the door, but not too sternly, as there was still the looming threat of the place collapsing. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal Chelsea, concealed in a vast array of thick, colourful blankets. When she saw Vaughn standing there: she looked like a deer caught in headlights. He almost smirked how intimidated she looked.

"Mirabelle sent me to fix your heating" He explained, blankly

"O-Oh" Chelsea stammered "it's fine, I mean, I should be able to, to uh, figure it out… it's not even that cold" she lied

Vaughn just sighed at her

"You gonna let me in or not?" He asked disinterestedly

Chelsea smiled at him shyly. "Thank you, come in" She said appreciatively, head bowed, possibly in intimidation, or gratitude- most likely both.

Chelsea's house was very bare, Vaughn noted as he stepped through the front door. He then reminded himself that he should have expected that as she had only just moved in, and after all, she was just an 'almost' girl. All she had was a bed, a bookcase and a small kitchen area.

Chelsea showed him to where her central heating unit was. "Would you like anything to drink? Possibly, A cup of tea…maybe?" Chelsea asked, anxiously

"Sure" he responded, quietly

"How do you like your tea?" She asked, moving into the kitchen area

"Black, no sugar" He stated, bluntly

"Okie dokie" she said, shyly. Vaughn had never wondered if it was possible for one to say 'okie dokie' shyly, but he supposed he didn't really have to now.

With an inaudible groan, Vaughn knelt down and took a look at the heating unit. One look told him that he actually had no idea about how central heating worked. He could hear Chelsea whistling contentedly from the kitchen. Despite its bareness, the shack was homely. With a pang of jealousy, he noted that there were family pictures hung all over the walls; he didn't have any family pictures. Scratching his head, he came to the conclusion that poking around with gas without having a clue of what he was doing was probably not a good idea. He slowly stood up and brushed the dirt off of his knees.

Vaughn glanced upwards and saw a something he hadn't noticed before; a photo above him on the wall. He froze. In the picture was a girl, unmistakeably Chelsea but a few years' younger, same hair, same eyes, same _sameness_. It was the boy standing next to her that was the cause of his distress.

Chelsea walked over with him and presented him with his mug of tea, he ignored her.

"How do you know him?" He asked, sternly

Chelsea was stunned at the man's boldness. She straightened herself up again, tired of letting him intimidate her.

"What's it to you?" she asked, defiantly

Vaughn leaned down so he was eye level with her and glared at her venomously

"That's my brother" He hissed. Chelsea looked at him confusedly.

"Oh" she began, unsure of where she was taking the sentence, suddenly regretting her defiance "So you're Skye's brother, huh? It was ridiculous of me not to realise that sooner, I mean, how many people have that hair colo-"

"Forget about it"

"But…"

"I know nothing about gas or heating" He said, cutting her off "but I do know Mirabelle would skin me if I didn't invite you to stay back to her place"

Chelsea put the disregarded mugs of tea on her coffee table. "Huh?" she asked puzzled at Vaughn's sharp change in character. But she was talking to herself- Vaughn was already half way out the door.

"You coming or not?" he asked from the doorway, not turning back to face her.

"J-just let me get a change of clothes!"

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><p><strong>I don't know what went wrong the first time I uploaded this chapter, hopefully it's fixed now!<strong>

**Thanks so much for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoy this part.**

**Also, in the previous two chapters I used apostrophes as speech marks and I have absolutely no idea why, I'm using proper speech marks from now on. This chapter was pre-written so there may still be some apostrophes here and there. **


	4. Cold Front

To Chelsea, walking into the pet store must have been like walking into a sauna. Her body instantly heated up.

"Oh my goodness, Chelsea- you're frozen solid!" Mirabelle cried as the rancher walked through the door. Mirabelle flung her arms around the girl and engulfed her in a hug which sent Chelsea stumbling back a few paces.

Julia and Vaughn both wore matching smirks; Julia's directed at her mother's eagerness to welcome the girl into her home, Vaughn's at Chelsea's discomfort.

"Oh, dear, you're so cold let me get you something hot to drink how about a nice cup of hot cocoa?" Mirabelle said, all at once.

Chelsea blushed a shade of red similar to the bandanna that covered her head

"Mum, you're making her feel uncomfortable" Julia noted humorously

This just made Chelsea's blush worse, until she got used to Mirabelle, she was going to be spending a lot of time blushing.

"What she really needs is a nice hot shower" Julia said, placing her arm around Chelsea's shoulder "I bet you're hot water isn't working yet, huh?"

"Uh" Chelsea began

"Great!" Julia exclaimed, pushing the girl into the bathroom

Vaughn just rolled his eyes from where he stood, leaning against the doorway.

Mirabelle shook her head once the two girls were out of the room "You know, Taro promised her that that house was liveable! Maybe in the summer not having heating would be okay, but in winter. It's disgusting" she grumbled "That man would say anything to get labour done"

Vaughn rolled his eyes. He said his next words without thinking about them "She'll be fine. Especially with your hospitality" He regretted saying the words as soon as they came out of his mouth. Fortunately, Mirabelle didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, I hope I'm not being too overbearing" She fretted "Will you tell me if I'm making her feel uncomfortable?" Mirabelle asked

Vaughn was taken aback by this "Me… why?" He asked, puzzled, he wasn't exactly best friends with her.

"Well, I was pretty overbearing with you" Mirabelle admitted "But the difference between you and Chelsea is that if I annoyed you, you'd tell me. If I annoyed Chelsea, she'd keep quiet about it. So, if you think I'm making her feel uncomfortable- tell me. Please?"

"Alright" Vaughn agreed. He wouldn't actually do it of course- he was only saying it to make her feel better.

"You know, she's around the same age you were when you first came to the island. She's also had a …let's say... _troubled_ past like yourself" Mirabelle diclosed

"If she's the same age I was when I first came here then she hasn't _had _a troubled past, she's _living_ a troubled present_" _He replied instantly

"Hmm" was Mirabelle's reply

Vaughn toyed with the idea of confiding in Mirabelle for a moment. He cleared his throat and sighed "She's friends with Skye"

Mirabelle's eyes widened and suddenly the room felt a lot colder to the both of them. Vaughn broke the silence "Bad Company makes bad people" He noted

Mirabelle sighed "Not all the time" She said quietly, gesturing at Vaughn. Vaughn's temper rose.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded

Mirabelle raised her hands to show she didn't mean any offence "I just meant that you turned out all right"

"I chose to leave Skye-"

"You can't choose your friends" Mirabelle proclaimed

"What? Of course you can. You can't choose your _family_" Vaughn corrected her

Mirabelle raised an eyebrow at him, she always did that when she was about to say something he wouldn't like "You chose us as family, yet you always criticise how immature Denny is but he's still your best friend"

Vaughn's first reaction was to tell Mirabelle that she as wrong. Upon thinking more about it, he realised that she was completely right. He'd never admit it though.

Mirabelle whistled through her teeth and left Vaughn standing alone in the middle of the room. She grabbed her coat and scarft from where they were slung lazily over the door "I'm going over to speak to Taro about Chelsea's house- be nice" she warned.

She wrapped the scarf around her neck "There's still some of that pie left over, have some if you're hungry, dear" she said, walking over to Vaughn to hug him again "An you know, I am really glad that we've got you back for another tw days" She promised. Mirabelle walked out of the door and into the cold night. Before she left, Vaughn was sure he heard her mumble "goodness, Julia has no concept of portion control" under her breath as she left.

Chelsea came out of the bathroom exactly seven minutes after she had entered it. Julia had gone out to the house of the local fisherman, Denny, to celebrate his birthday in a not-so-civilized manner at his not-so-civilized party so it was just Chelsea and Vaughn in the house.

Chelsea stood by the doorframe, not sure of what to do and Vaughn realised that for the first time in a while, he also was not sure of what to do.

"Well don't look at me for guidance" He commanded, sharply "sit down"

It took him a few seconds to realise that he had just given Chelsea guidance after telling her not to ask him for guidance, he almost grimaced at how absent minded this island made him. Chelsea nodded nervously and took the seat furthest away from Vaughn on the couch.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Vaughn was surprised that Chelsea was the first one to speak.

"So, you're Skye's brother?" She asked, curiously. Just the reminder of the existence of his brother made Vaughn's blood run cold. When Chelsea was sure Vaughn wasn't going to reply, she spoke again.

"We've been best friends since we were kids" she said, distantly, like she was remembering it

Vaughn didn't really want to say more than he had to, but against his better judgement...

"And you know about his… occupation" Vaughn accused

Chelsea smiled sheepishly "I know he's not perfect"

"Not perfect?" Vaughn laughed, humourlessly "That boy is the furthest from perfect you could get". He had realised, bitterly, that Chelsea seemed surprised at the fact Skye had a brother, which would indicate that Skye had never spoken of him.

_I don't care_ he reminded himself

"He's not a good guy" Vaughn declared

"I know it's not my place to ask what happened between you guys, so I won't" Chelsea began "But there was a little kid in our village: Todd. Skye used to really look after him; it always seemed to me like he missed somebody he used to care for" She began, hoping it would lead on to Vaughn opening up to her

"You're right" Vaughn declared "It's not your place, and it's none of your damn business" He said sharply. He stood up from the sofa and walked towards his bedroom and slammed the door.


	5. My Dining Wish

He sat in the diner, staring into his porridge as Chelsea sat opposite him, biting her thumbnail and trying to think of something to say.

When Vaughn went to breakfast that morning, he was not too happy to see Chelsea sitting round the table eating breakfast with Mirabelle and Julia like she was part of their family. Vaughn was sure he was not jealous, because he did not believe in jealousy.

Vaughn decided not to spend breakfast with the girls'; instead, he opted to go out to the diner for the morning meal.

In his haste to leave the house he had forgotten his hat, he had decided that it was too late to go back to retrieve it by the time he had realised he had forgotten it. Nobody on the island really noticed Vaughn so he managed to get to the diner without anybody taking a particular interest in him; this was something he liked about the island. Nobody paid attention to the quiet ones. Nobody ever seemed to care about you unless you were perky or outgoing or cute. The feeling of wind on his head made Vaughn shudder slightly, it was a feeling he was not used to and frankly, it made him feel quite uncomfortable.

During the walk to the diner, he had briefly let his thoughts drift towards his brother. How his brother had laughed at his jokes and taught him comebacks to use when people teased him and comforted him when the bullying all got a bit too much. They used to sneak food out from the kitchen when their mother was having business meetings and stay up all night watching videos of silly cats doing silly things all night.

Vaughn didn't like to dwell on those memories anymore. Skye had given Vaughn the sense of belonging and security he had craved and then taken it away from him as quickly as you could say 'I will never admit to watching silly videos of silly cats'

Vaughn had entered the diner with his head down and taken his usual seat. He had ordered his usual meal of porridge and waited the usual amount of time. One thing unusual about this morning, was the addition of Chelsea, who had wandered into the diner looking like a lost puppy and sat down at his table at the same time as his meal had arrived.

"So like I said, I'm really sorry" She explained "Can we start again?"

_I didn't know we'd even started at all _he thought

He just grunted in response

"Is that a yes?" Chelsea asked, hopefully

"Sure" he muttered disinterestedly. He wasn't looking at Chelsea, but he was sure she was smiling like she'd just made a new friend.

"Great" She exclaimed "So we're friends now?" She asked tentatively

"Don't push it"

Chelsea's beam faltered slightly, she still remained happy though.

"Okay" she said, shyly "I won't be staying at Mirabelle's for very long" she added

When Vaughn said nothing, she continued "I'm really sorry to have imposed, but uh, I'll have my heating fixed soon... Hopefully…" She trailed off, scratching the back of her head.

"It's not my house" Vaughn declared "I'm leaving today anyway" he dug his spoon into his meal and observed the steam rising out of it before lifting it to his mouth.

Chelsea looked startled "You're leaving?" Chelsea began before stopping herself "Ah, what am I doing? It's none of my businesses" she noted

Vaughn almost smirked at this; at least she was learning.

"I hope it's not to get away from me" Chelsea joked "It seems like we're not getting along that well so far"

"Don't worry, you don't matter that much"

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><p>This chapter's a little smaller than the rest, sorry. I really hope you like it anyway! :)<p> 


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